Reversing hearing loss

OKC’s Autigen announces collaboration to discover, develop & commercialize treatments for sensorineural hearing loss

Oklahoma City-based Autigen, a biotechnology portfolio company of the pharmaceutical accelerator, Ascend BioVentures, developing novel treatments for hearing loss, announced that it has signed a research collaboration and license agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim to discover, develop, and commercialize transformative therapies for patients with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL).

About 430 million people suffer from moderate to complete hearing loss worldwide, a number expected to rise to about 700 million by 2050. Hearing loss can significantly impact multiple aspects of life, including the loss of the ability to follow spoken conversations. Hearing loss contributes to increased risk of dementia and cognitive decline.

Deafness in early life, if left unaddressed, is associated with poor development of spoken language and higher unemployment rates in later life. In addition, hearing loss represents a significant psychological burden such as loneliness, isolation, depression, and anxiety.

SNHL, which can eventually lead to deafness, accounts for about 90% of reported hearing loss cases and is related to a degeneration of sensory hair cells (HC) in the inner ear.

“We are excited to enter this collaboration with BoehringerIngelheim, an innovation-led company with a strong commitment to developing breakthrough regenerative and hearing loss therapies.” said Elaine Hamm, Ph.D., President, Autigen and CEO of Ascend BioVentures. “This collaboration advances our leadership position in novel therapies for sensorineural hearing loss, an approach that Autigen and our wonderful scientific collaborators at the Hough Ear Institute, have pioneered. The scientific discoveries made by Drs. Kopke, West and many others is nothing short of potentially life changing. It marks the first major licensing partnership out of our pharmaceutical accelerator, Ascend BioVentures, and will enable Autigen to advance its novel therapy approach to restore SNHL for patients, who currently have no approved pharmacological or biological treatment options.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Autigen will receive an undisclosed upfront payment and research funding support. The company is also eligible to receive future success-based milestone payments of a total potential value of more than $100M if all milestones are achieved over the course of the partnership. Autigen is also eligible for royalties on products derived from the partnership. After a joint research collaboration phase, Boehringer Ingelheim will be responsible for further preclinical and clinical development, and commercialization.

Autigen, a subsidiary of Otologic Pharmaceutics, is a biotechnology company developing novel therapies for patients with acute and chronic hearing loss. The company’s research was developed by scientists at the Hough Ear Institute (HEI). The company’s technology can regenerate lost hair cells (HC) in the ear. The therapeutic can be administered in the ear in an outpatient setting.

Otologic Pharmaceutics is a portfolio company of the pharmaceutical accelerator, Ascend BioVentures. Visit www. otologicpharma.com.

Ascend BioVentures is a virtual pharmaceutical accelerator focused on supporting startups focused on preclinical drug development. A subsidiary of i2E, Ascend’s partners include the Presbyterian Health Foundation, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, and the University of Oklahoma. Ascend is based in Oklahoma City.

In addition to Otologic Pharmaceutics and Autigen, Ascend’s portfolio of developing companies includes:

Cadenza Bio: Focused on development of novel therapeutic drugs for treatment of demyelinating, inflammatory, and neurodegenerative diseases with a secondary program in endometriosis. This company is currently raising a Series A round. Azorilla: Innovative chemistry designed to neutralize and eliminate noxious chemical compounds with applications ranging from consumer products to industrial manufacturing. This is currently being tested by a Fortune 500 company. Algeron: Clostridium difficile vaccine that could protect against multiple hypervirulent strains of Cdiff and could effectively prevent relapse.